i finally had to give in and get a heat lamp for the chickens!!!

[rebelcowboysnb]

Your welcome to move south an see but I have lived here my whole life an have learned that chickens cant take the abrupt drops we have here. We also have close to 100% humidity most of the year. It makes for muggy summers an winters with ice crystals floating everywhere like frozen fog. There's just no such thing as dry in the south. Your ether hot an wet or cold an wet.

I have family from the north an they always talking about how much harsher the weather feels down here than it is in the north.

The one size fits all mindset does not really work in the real world. What works in Michigan wont necessarily work in Mobile. Reality gets in the way.

 

[Katy]

Quote:
I had to chuckle at the statement that I highlighted......My brother lives in NW Georgia and he says the exact opposite...he comes home to Kansas and about freezes his rear off......even when it's not that cold. And this is a guy that grew up basically not wearing a coat even on the coldest days.

 

[Rozzie]

Quote:
Sorry, but if your adult chickens froze to death at 20 degrees then there was something other than cold that was wrong with them. You just put 2 and 2 together and got 22. Healthy chickens should be able to handle subzero temperatures if they've been allowed to accumulate to them--20 above should be beach weather to them.

For all of you using ceramic and 250w heat bulb heaters. Been nice knowing you, I'll say goodbye now since many of you will be gone from BYC once your coop burns to the ground.

See there's your mistake. Ga is not NY. Chickens here are accustomed to extreme heat an don't get to get use to cold slowly. The sudden changes we see in the south will kill healthy chickens. 20 degrees will kill chickens raised in georgia heat. It isn't the 20* that kills them its the 60* drop without warning that does. We can see 80*+ days that turn in to 0* nights. That will kill even the hardiest livestock. My brother lost a horse to it last year.

I have to agree here. I've lived in states where we would see 50-60 degree temp swings in a few hours. It's really hard on animals. They don't have some long acclimation process when they've had 70 degrees during the day and it suddenly switches to 15 degrees by the time the night is over, then is back up to 65 the next day then back down to 20 that night. Wild birds that are native to this or other similar climates evolved in that climate (no, I will NOT discuss evolution here. Don't bother. If you go there, I'm not responding.) They are designed genetically to handle it. Those that don't handle it die and don't pass their genes on to the next generation. This is not the case with chickens because we manipulate their breeding by deciding who breeds & doesn't & what eggs are allowed to develop.

I keep seeing people all over these boards post that chickens are hardy & will get used to the weather. SOME TYPES of chickens can get used to cold weather. Not all of them. Sumatras, Malays, Seramas, for example, are not very cold hardy. These varieties developed in warm climates. You could conceivably breed them over enough generations to be more cold hardy, but you'd end up changing the breed in other ways in the process. most likely. Even with cold hardy breeds, though, you can lose birds with temp shifts. I ALWAYS used to lose birds the first time or two we had 50-60 temp swings in the winter. We kept 250 watt heat lamps out for the birds from the first time such weather was predicted through the end of the winter. That coop had a dirt floor & they were double tied to a roof beam. I had electricity run to the chicken houses & didn't need to use extension cords. I was more worried about the electric in my house than theirs....rightfully so, it turned out.

Edited to add: Also remember that in Southern climates, coops are often built differently. This is necessary due to the summer heat. Even if you take steps to reduce that in winter, most coops will not be built to northern specs. Thus 20 degrees in a typical Southern coop can be much more unpleasant / dangerous than 20 degrees in a typical Northern coop.

 

[woolychicken]

i live in the northern part of michigan and our high temp to day is a big 20 degrees YUCK!! who knows how cold it will be tonght. i have lost hens from it being to cold so i pay the price.
i use heat lamps i have 9 running at all times untill the temp gets to 45 then they will go off.
my coop stays around 35-40 degrees. the coop is 16x20 and we just add an 11x15 additon.
yep my elecrtic bill is a blast

the price i pay for the heated coop
in side my coop i have 5 different areas older hens, younger layers, bantums, the rooster jail and brooder pen. so the sections in use are heated. i just hate winter!!!!! but i sure enjoy my chickens !!
just think 3 1/2 more months and we will ALL be thinking SPRING

SO TO YOU WHO HEAT YOUR COOPS I PRAY WE ALL STAY SAFE AND TO THOSE WHO DO NOT I PRAY YOUR NIGHTS AND DAYS WILL STAY ALOT WARMER THEN OURS IN THE NORTH
HAVE A WONDERFULL HOILDAY TO EVERYONE

to the wonderfull person who said good bye to use who use heat lamps for we will burn down!!
GET A NEW ATTITUDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[jnkir7]

i put a heat bulb that doesn't put out any light, works great sorry but i think a little heat is needed,just my opinion . janie

 

[Tuffoldhen]

Mine are doing fine in knee deep pine shavings, no heat and it's -4 with the wind chill!

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Same here Katy. We had some light snow showers last night. The thermometer says 64 right now.

 

[EHaus]

My girls are scratching around, enjoying the sun that's about to go down. Unfortunately, it's only 1pm and 16F. They don't mind it, though! I have an engine block heater under their waterer to keep it from freezing, and they seem to get some heat from that. Also I have a covered lamp on for about 16 hours a day. The coop inside temp is 24.6F, so they are doing just fine here.

 

[EweSheep]

Sometimes it pays attention to the breed that the OP has. If he has Medit. breed birds, they would need a bit of heat unless he has more heavy breeds to compensate heat radianent to the other buddies, keeping the coop warm.

Sometimes unknown underlying problems, genetically they can die that they may have been fine earlier. Sometimes a heart attack on a bird one morning is not that unusual if none of the buddies have the same problem, their heart was taxed to the max to keep warm, thus, resulted a dead bird.

We will bound to lose a few birds but not at a drastic loss, its the survival for the fittest.

I used to have heat lamp in my cow barn but it has concrete all four walls and floor. One time, it popped the light, didn't shatter the bulb but broke the filaments inside the bulb, probably the birds flying into it and didn't cause a fire because there was no bedding on the floor AND the hanging device was on a chain, nailed into the rafters of the barn. I don't know how many times the birds flew into it but it never came down.

Then I moved into the city, went chickenless for about ten years I think, and had a couple of lamp fires. Scary but glad both times were caught in time. I decided a broody hen was the best route to go unless I got an orphan chick or two or unexpected order of chicks and no broody mom. Broody hens worth their weight in gold but use common sense getting the ratio of egg laying vs broody.

So again, it depends on the breed of the chicken and how much we are willing to risk dead birds from cold vs heat fire. Just be careful!!!!